Answer:
The Virginia Bill of Rights, adopted on June 12, 1776, is considered the first modern human rights declaration in history, although it has an important precedent in the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
Flag of England's colonies in North America between January 2, 1776 and June 14, 1777
It was adopted by the Virginia Delegates Convention as part of the Virginia Constitution in the context of the American Revolution of 1776, when the 13 British colonies in America gained their independence. Through the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the other colonies were encouraged to become independent from Great Britain.
It is a document that proclaims that all men are by nature free and independent and have a number of inherent rights of which they cannot be deprived. It was the direct forerunner of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen made by the French Revolution and the United States Bill of Rights, which took effect in 1791 as ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The initial draft of the document was made by George Mason between May 20 and 26, 1776, and was later amended by Thomas Ludwell Lee and the Virginia Convention itself. Mason was inspired by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, but unlike the Bill of Rights, he rejected the notion of privileged classes or hereditary governmental functions, as was (and still is) the case in the British monarchy.
The Virginia Bill of Rights consists of sixteen articles that list the rights belonging to the people of Virginia ... as the basis and foundation of government: to life, liberty, property ownership, due process, freedom of the press and religion, and so on. It also provides for popular sovereignty, prohibition of birth privileges (equality before the law), division of powers, trial by jury, etc. Some scholars highlight the fact that the Declaration of Virginia coexisted with slavery and the lack of rights for women.
